Battle shonens were never about hard work getting you anywhere.

Battle shonens were never about hard work

I was just watching Kaiju No. 8 and Solo Leveling and while both of them were awfully uncreative and had zero original ideas, one thing striked me during this time: battle shonens were always about being born with the right genetics or getting a deus ex machina. Without these you’re never going to matter.

Even in Naruto, Rock Lee was a natural talent because Might Guy even said “Lee had a special talent for the gates” otherwise we could see anyone using the gates. The only recent show were hard work earned it’s price is from Jujutsu Kaisen’s Kusakabe (unlike Rock Lee) and even that he’s still just Grade 1 in an era where special grade turned out to be obsolete. The lesson every Battle Shonen should make obvious: without special talent, at best you can be above average. (Which JJK admits early on the series)

Unlike wuxia which is all about if not democratizing the battlefield at least it is meritocratic. But the way some fans believe or some shows trying to say that “hard work beats talent”. Well no! Seriously, all big names operate with this premise that only your genetics matters.

I’m not saying that this is a bad thing on itself. My only problem is when fans trying to promote a show as a “hard work beats talent” or when even the show somehow argues that “you can do anything if you really want it” while they leave out the part “on the condition that you were born a God”.